2 weeks in cartago

Last night we went to a party if quince anos.  It was pretty crazy.  The only thing comparable I have seen is a wedding.  In fact I think a lot of weddings are less lavish.  It started at the church.  The priest talked for about 45 minutes.   They girl sat in the front of the church with her parents at either side.  They said a lot of prayers, the priest would say something and the congregation would somehow magically know the response. I didn't understand too much.  At the end of the service the girl took her fist communion.  As well as some other people who had watched.  Once hey had taken communion the priest drained all the wine from the goblet in a huge swig.  And ate several pieces of communion bread, before wiping out the cup with a napkin.  Then everyone got up an left, and drove to he party.  The party was in a rented out building.  The theme was "hoollywood" as a huge sign above the door declared.  I don't mention to anyone that "hoollywood" was spelled wrong.  At he entrance was a red carpet and all the tables had flowers and popcorn and soda, and the chairs were all covered in cloth like the curtains in a movie theater.  It was obvious that a lot of care was put into the presentation and everything was very elegant.  Outside the birthday girl greeted all her guests.  And welcomed me without question along with everyone else even though I had never met her before and was now showing up at her party.  Everyone went and sat at the tables then the dj announced the names of pairs of the girls best friends.  They came into he building in pairs and were greeted by applause.  Each pair paused on te carpet to have their picture taken.  There were several hired photographers there scurry around with their DSLRs trying to capture evrymoment.   They even had a huge portable light set up.  The couples walked in to sappy 80s music in English.  Finally the the parents walked in followed by the birthday girl and her escort.  She was greeted by a huge applause before going to he back of the building to dance the 1st dance with her father.  This was I'd course very carefully captured in pictures and everybody stood up to watch.  They girl looked to be feeling more awkward than anything, to be slow dancing in front of all the people.  Then all the friends of the girl danced the next song.  Eventually everyone joined in dancing.  The music was a huge variety,  Spanish hip hop and rap, oldies from the USA , pop from the USA, it was varied, also salsa and merengue music.  Servers in ties came to serve pastries to take with coffee.  People danced, they brought tamales and pork soup they brought out something new like every 40 minutes.  People danced, ate, danced ate....  Cupcakes were for dessert, they tasted like sweet cornbread with a vanilla flavor, topped with vibrantly red frosting, they were good, despite being a little surprising at first.  A mariachi band came, the girl stood in the middle of the room as the band sang like three songs to her and everyone looked on.  Then the the singer danced with the girl while singing.  He moved his hips really awkwardly and the girl looked a little uncomfortable.  There was more dancing, the girl stood underneath the "hoollywood" sign and took pictures with all the families, and there were a lot of families.  There were a lot of families too.  Here facial muscles must be very sore today from all the smiling she had to do.   Then they began passing out whistles and masks and sparkly hats.  I was a little confused.  The little kids started running around blowing the whistles all the while the DJ was blasting music.  The noise was deafening.  Then the caranaval came.  About five girls in what looked like matching bright colored sports bras and spandex, shirtless guys in silky red pants, and like three guys on stilts with masks, along with drummers.  The other music stopped but was replaced by very loud drumming.  Everyone made a circle and danced around the birthday girl and he carnaval who danced with her.  The girls shook more than danced, everyone guys and girls in he band danced wih a  lot of hip movement.  It was a little overwhelming te amount of color and noise.  One of the guys on stilts started dancing with me, it was fun, although I watched more than danced.  We left soon after the caranaval.  It was a totally different party than any I have ever seen, but a lot of fun!  It has been to very interesting weeks!

1 week in Agua Caliente

Today after church we drove into the mountains.  The mountains are he most beautiful thing I have eve seen, everything is green and lush, and it is a mixture of agriculture and wilderness.  I am going to move to the mountains in Costa Rica when I am old, I decided today.  There are a lot of coffee plants and sugar canes, the countryside on the side of the mountains is scattered with little towns, farms and of course fields of coffee and sugar cane.  The roads are very narrow and wind along the edge of the mountain.  If you forget how close you are to the edge of a precipice the view is breathtaking, you can see the towns below and Orosi Valley, and the dammed river Cachi.  Across the valley are the ridges of other mountains.  I could never describe it well so ill just say its GORGEOUS!  We drove for like 30 or 40 minutes up the mountian to a resturaunt.  Where some the family of the brother of my host father met us. The resturaunt was train themed, as they used to use trains to haul coffee in this area.  For lunch I had platinos con queso, or plantains with cheese.  It sounds gross but it was really "muy rico" or very good.  Rico is the word to describe any yummy food.  They use the word Rico here in like every sentence to describe food.  In general people here use a LOT of posotive words which is different.  Everything is "lindo" or "Rico", it is different coming from a place where people arent afraid to be critical of everything.  We then drove back down the mountain, bought some cheese from a vender at the side of the road.  At a town further down he mountain we stopped to visit my host grandparents.   Here we bought more food.   We went to a bakery and my host dad bought, bread with jelly, French bread, pinapple cake, and orejas.  Orejas mean "ears" in Spanish and are absolutely delicious.  It's a pastry covered in syrup in the shape of a huge disc, and its delicious.  We had coffee and pastries.  I have been drinking coffee twice a day since I got here.  And people think its wierd that I like it black.  We watched a football game, and some of the fans started beating up other fans on live tv.   My host family were totally outraged.  I have met so many family members over te last week, I will never be able to remember all their names.  My host dad has like 45 nieces and nephews.  For dinner tonight we had ice cream with food, the food here is very "Rico" but a lot of sugar and carbs.  Yesterday I went skating in an indoor skating place that rents skates.  There was music like American top 40 kind of thing and disco lighting and everyone was skating around in a circle.  One and a while one of the workers would call out directions, like skate in the other direction at the whistle and stuff like that, it was a lot of fun.  And also to a huge mall, bigger than any I have ever been to.  I have only been here 1 week but I have already been to two huge malls.  Yesterday I also went with my cousin to a meeting of  fans of Rihanna, even though I am not really a huge fan of Rihanna.  But that was very interesting.  Tomorrow I have school at 7 and my first class is English, this should be fun.... It's really funny listening to Costa Ricans talk in English, it is almost unintelligible.  ...probably what my Spanish sounds like.. But I think I am improving...maybe

Everything is different!

I am still getting used to life here.  It is a beautiful country and i am enjoying being here.   the family i am staying with is very kind and welcoming.  the westher is BEAUTIFUL!  The country is also gorgeos!  The lifestyle is very different. Everything is more relaxed.  There are no soccer moms here carting their kids around everywhere.  When people aren't at school they watch tv and go on their phones and tablets and other devices.  I have never watched this much tv in my life, it is always on, during every meal and throughout the day. It's all in Spanish and great for learning the language.  It's interesting though because its all te same shows like Disney channel but with Spanish voices.  They also love singers from the USA. The adore Katy Perry and Rihanna, and know all the songs although they don't understand what the mean.   They also are way more updated on celebrities from the USA then I am. They ask me if I have seen USA shows and celebrities which I have never followed.  For example people here watch keeping up with he Kardashians which I have never seen.   When people sing in English too it's not really English.   A lot of people know at least a little English though, although it doesn't really sound like English most of the time.  Which is probably how my Spanish sounds to them I am terrible at pronunciation.  Like we played telephone in English class and they pronounced things so differently I didn't really understand.  Even the English teacher doesn't always sound like he is talking in English.  But I guess that's the same as it is in the USA most of my teachers couldn't even speak Spanish.  Little things are different here.  Here are some things that are different.

1.  People always wear shows in the house.

2.  It's weird that I wash my hair every day, you ar only supposed to wash it a couple times a week.

3.  School has a lot of recesses.

4. The first week of school is just getting to know e proffessors.

5.  We don't change class rooms the proffessors change.  

6.  He food is very different, a lot of carbs.  It is delicious though.

7.  Portion sizes are big.  I have a really hard time eating everything because its so much food.
8.  My hair is really wierd here.  Everyone is always touching it.  People ask me when the last time I cut it is.  Also my little sisters always want to braid it.  Like right now my 2 year old sister is brushing my hair.  And my 7 year old sister is always saying how pretty my hair is, it's different.  My family is always comparing my hair to Rapunzel haha.

There's a lot more that I can't think or right now

This is my 5th day in Costa Rica.  Everything is totally different.  On Monday I started school.  It was totally different.  We were divided into groups in different and put in different class rooms.  It was the first day of school and began at 1 pm.  The first week schools start late, because not everyone has been put in groups yet.  School began with an opening ceremony kind of thing. About four teachers gave long talks which I didn't really understand but they talked a lot about honoring the uniform and its importance.  And when we got to the class rooms they did a check marking everyone that was wearing too tight of pants or bracelets or in some other way was not complying with the uniform. It was really interesting. My first impression was that they seemed very Strict.  But apparently this is only for the first several weeks and then they become more relaxed.  We aren't supposed to start our "materials" till next week because not everyone has groups yet. So we have just been doing this and that.  We had to read articales and share in front of the class they were about violence, I didn't share cause I don't know much. I feel very stupid always asking people o replete themselves but other than that all is good.

First day

I am now in Costa Rica.  It is beautiful here.  The weather is gorgeous especially in comparison to Wisconsin.  Today it was 80.  Costa Rica is totally different and very simulator, with a lot o the same stores, and billboards.  The driving was the thing that shocked me he most.  It was terrifying.  Costa Ricans are very daring drivers.  There are a ton of motorcycles which weave in and out of traffic.  Several times I thought ur bus driver was going to run someone over.  At this point all I know is that I will be riding in cars as little as possible, and I will be EXTREMELY careful crossing the street.  Also I have had my first experience obviously not being a native.  Everybody was staring at us in our bus.  The weren't hostile or friendly just curious.  The streets are also like super tiny.  It's weird they don't look like they should have two lanes, but they do.  Also motorcyclists drive on the wrong side of the rode, like a foot accross he center line with cars wizzing by in the other direction justs inches away.   Everyone kept swerving and cutting in front of each other, and traffic was really backed up.  That isn't too out of he ordinary seeing as it was like 5 do probably rush hour.  Another little thing I noticed was different was he window in the bus.  The window was really big, like so big that a little kid could very easily just fall right out.  The also slid open side ways which was different.  It was a shock getting to the airport and having he lady talk to you in flood Spanish,  it was unexpected and I was an idiot and totally didn't understand.  Today the "orientation" has just been meeting exchange students from all over the world, which has been really fun.  Tomorrow we get into be serious information.  And not all the students are here yet, and for many it is the opposite time for hem in their home country.  I am lucky since Costa Rica has the same time zone.  Everybody knows English.  But I have been able to here people talking in other languages.

La aventura empieza

Tomorrow at 6 am I leave home.  For five months.  At this point my feelings are very bittersweet, it is just beginning to sink in that I won't see my family and friends for so long.  However I am more excited than anything, and cannot wait to see Costa Rica and meet my new host family!  A few weeks ago I found out that I would no longer be able to stay with my initial host family, and yesterday I finally was given the information about my new host family.  They seem to be a very sweet family, with three little girls.  I will be living only 15 minutes from my previous placement in the city of Cartago.  Cartago is the oldest city in Costa Rica and was founded in the 1500s.  The city is near the mountains and surrounded in farming villages.  The weather there is very temperate never going much above 75 degrees or under 65.  As I just found out all this yesterday, today has been very hectic.  The morning was devoted to shopping for gifts for the new family, and this afternoon I have been attempting to fit everything in one small suitcase.  This has been a challenge.  Nevertheless I am getting close to being ready, though it is still hard to believe this is actually happening!  Tomorrow I will have to wake up at 3am to get to the airport at 4:45 to get my luggage checked.  It will be another eventful day.  The weekend will be only AFS orientations, until I meet my family on Sunday.  Then I will likely begin school Monday.  So, my first days in Costa Rica will be busy.  Although I still hope to be able to blog fairly soon after I arrive.  Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible!  Till next time.